10X14 Excelerator Coil

[JohnA]

Wading through all the multiple posts on all brands of large coils, taking into consideration opinions regarding manufacturers and dealers, I decided to try the 10X14 Excelerator coil on my Quattro. Bottomline, it is a keeper. I posted a short review after a 4 hour beach hunt on the Explorer forum, where there have been active threads on large coils.I know 4 hours isn't very long, but long enough to convince me it is staying on for the beach season.

 

[beachguy777]

John, I hate to ask you this and sound ignorant, but are you using a Quatro or an Explorer with that coil? I only ask that because you said you posted a review on the Explorer forum so I'm a little mixed up, BUT, I'm very interested in that coil. I have Quatro, and I'm either gonna get the one you have (down the road just a little bit) or the 15" WOT coil. I've read good reviews about both of them and my primary place I'll probably use it is the beach. I love the idea, because it covers more ground (per sweep) and should go deeper than the 10.5" one that came with the Quatro. Glad you like it, and my one other question, if I may, is do you get the sensitivity you get with the smaller coils? In other words, can you pick up pretty much the same kind of stuff you did with the medium size coils or do you think your sacrificing a bit in that area? Just curious. Marc.

 

[JohnA]

Quattro. The Explorer forum is more active, especially regarding coils. Have about 6 hours on it so far, wet/dry sand. Have cranked the sensitivity up to 19, but 18 seems to be the sweet spot in my conditions. Have found 2 rings, lots of clad with dimes to 12" and a quarter at 14". Finding small stuff, zipper pulls,etc. Separates well, found 2 quarters in a sea of pull-tabs yesterday. Feel confident it will go deeper if the target is there, as the deepest targets so far gave really strong signals. Pinpoints well and the elliptical design allows me to go down in my small holes. I use a homemade 4" PVC scoop on the beach, since I got tired of using my 7 lb stainless steel scoop out of the water. Bottomline, the WOT coil may be deeper, but Mike Bearden on the Explorer Forum thinks this coil is as deep. This coil is plenty deep enough, and for me, I am not going to use anything else at this point for the beach.

 

[JW]

That is getting very deep in mineralized ground.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

You do realize that all of the coils for the Explorers also work on the Quattro, right? John is right...the Explorer forum is a lot more active. You should get over there once in a while. And you should get one of these coils too!

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?19,518478,518478#msg-518478

http://www.findmall.com/read.php?19,518826,518826#msg-518826

 

[beachguy777]

Wow, that's a good, informative response! I kind of "get the drift" that you like this "bad boy".Well I'm certainly impressed with the depth and sensitivity you seem to be getting, and I was surprised when you mentioned it was elliptical. I didn't know they came in that shape, but to me that's even better. By the way, I can certainly feel for you lugging that 7lb. scoop around all afternoon. If you can do without it, it sure does lighten the load. Beachguy.

 

[beachguy777]

How ya doin' there Mikey!!! Wait, don't touch that dial!! You know I'm only kidding you on that. I know your the terror of Virginia Beach, and by the way, your right again. I need to "still" get out there more and especially since summer is here, now would be a great time to have one of the bigger coils. I have snuck over to the Explorer forum a few times and it does seem to be pretty darn active. Lots of good stuff on that forum. I kind of figure when I go over there, I can read what the "big dogs" are doin' until I can get off the porch and get going. Believe it or not, I'm not kidding when I say that. By the way, you'd be really proud of me, I almost went out for over TWO, hours at a local beach last weekend with my wonderful dog Bonnie. I only found 11cents, but it was still fun, and I keep telling myself, I'm gearing up here to get "really" serious, so I hope someday, I can send you a picture of a gold ring. You know the funny thing Mike, is Im serious at heart, but I'm just not doing the grunt work of getting out in the trenches enough yet. Thanks for all your encouragement over the years. Honestly, it means a lot to me. Marc.

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Well, get out there and get you some gold man. You know, it's like the lottery...you can't win if you you don't buy a ticket!

 

[beachguy777]

You're so right brother!!!, It ain't gonna happin without the work. :|
Mike, I think I've re-chared my batteries enought times, now I need to actually pick the darn thing up, put it in my car and get my (you know what) down to a job site.:|I'm gonna do it, I'm gonna, I'm gonna, God I hope I do, before we all retire to our rocking chairs. :|

 

[Mike (Virginia Beach)]

Either that or sell it and take up knitting, huh?

 

[w4uvvjw]

I have a new Excellerator II 16 inch coil. I haven't tried it yet but when attached to the Quattro the total configuration is heavy and can be physically tiring on the arm and the back. I recommend using a backbrace adjustable by velco straps.

 

[Golden]

Hello w4uvviw, I'd be interested to know what you think of the coil, once you've tried it. Can you tell me how deep it goes in comparision to the 10.5 inch standard Quattro coil? Are you into beach detecting, or do you go elsewhere?
Cheers Golden

 

[beachguy777]

Yea, Mike, maybe your right, but even knitting takes a lot of work, for pete's sake. You have to go get the needles, put the yarn on, get the pattern you want, and....... Oh, my God, You don't suppose here.... that anything that's worth doing, ACTUALLY TAKES WORK, NOW.!!!!!!:| Thanks Mike. You really know how to put things into perspective. :|

 

[w4uvvjw]

Honestly other than doing an air test I haven't used it for a couple of reasons. I believe there is at least 1 maybe two additional inches difference. I have some issues with the Quattro. I am trying to master it but not having much luck so far. I do fine air testing but reality is a different matter. Hopefully I am doing something wrong. If so I don't know what it is. Everything good & bad wants display in the 30's range. I also have a Spectrum XLT with a 5 inch double D coil & a custom coin program I use. Yesterday I detected at one new school playground site and old one that previously had been very good for dropped coins. I was hoping the Quattro might get something deeper down the XLT missed. But it was not to be. The Quattro with the 10 inch coil kept giving false hits. At one point I lowered the sensitivy to 5! and still had false hits in the coins mode. It was not a trashy area being searched. Maybe the previous day's rain adversely affected the Quattro's performance. I have mastering the Quattro book. Even with Bullseye pointer my eye is better. If it's that close I can see whatever. The Bullseye pointer almost has to touch whatever. I waste a lot of time pinpointing & tried all the recommended methods and haven't had much luck with any of them. Unfortunately the XLT does not have the depth nor the frequency range of the Quattro.
To add insult the Quattro physically is poorly designed in respect to rod and rod/coil interface and securing. The open/close friction fits/securing are easily stressed when sitting the Quattro on the ground digging, probing, etc. This situation on three occasions Saturday caused the control head interface support rod to literally fall out of the friction fit inteface. Upon returning home I found a U shaped plastic piece in my junk box and used RTV sealant to attach it to factory supplied stand. This modification provides a higher ground resting angle and puts less stress on the control head/rod interface. Additionally I cut two small pieces of rubber to give a tigher securing at that interface. The modifications helped but the rods interface design of the XLT are superior. I never had such a problem as the XLT uses a spring loaded hole selection method. Yesterday was not a fun day using the Quattro. Hopefully the problem is me doing something wrong.

I am 75 miles from Va. Beach. I spent 3 years of my life in Va. Beach living (in poverty I later found out) as a low ranking Seaman at NAS Oceana and trying to survive living in a military & tourist town. I haven't been beach hunting there but have in Venice, Florida. I had good luck finding dropped coins. I used the XLT. The Quattro was not made then.

 

[Golden]

Hello w4uvviw (like to know what all those letters stand for in your name!)Anyway, so sorry you're not having much fun with the Qauttro. I'm not familiar with your other detectors, as I'm more into the Minelab brands. I haven't heard of a Quattro falling apart as you described, have you sent it back to get it fixed, because if you fix it yourself, it voids the warrenty. Anyway, the Quattro performs quite good on wet ground, in fact I've found hunting with it in moist or damp soil conditions often more productive than in the dry. I'm talking here of goldfields ground. Your ground is a bit different to here I've gathered. I don't know how long you've had your detector for, and how much time you've put into learning it, but the Quattro is NOT a get up and go detector as often is falsly portrayed. There IS a learning curve to it, which takes time and patience, and if you read the prior posts on this forum, the results of hunting with the Quattro speak for themselves. For the Quattro to be giving false signals as you described, with the sense turned right down to 5, sounds odd to say the least. Are you sure you are reading your signals correctly, and that what you refer to as falsing, is? Some soils with a high mineralisation can make your detector give false readings, the sounds or signals can be constant and very nerve racking if you're not used to it. I've noticed something interesting with guys detecting to girls. The guys with a Quattro seem to be less tolerant to the barrage of signals, than a few of the girls I know who one and use one. If you were to throw down a coin, at that time of listening to these signals, the detector should be picking up the coin, loud and clear, despite all the noises you're hearing. Also, what threshold are you running? It needs to be turned down to just comfortably audiable. It's a bit hard to advice you on what you are doing right or wrong, but I would suggest that you try to go out with sometone who has been using a Quattro for some time, and knows his/her detector. They'll be able to help you. They can watch what you're doing, have a look at the settings, and by determining the ground you are detecting in, how to set your detector to get optimum performance. But keep on with the beach detecting, as it's one of the easiest places to learn to use the detector, if there's not too much trash, to give you a breather between signals. As for all the falsing, if it's the case, it could be the ground is mineralised, contains hot rock, iron ore, iron sulphites, or metals mixed with concrete that might be buried on some beaches, like here, that were old drain pipes, cave-in baskets, etc. What ever you do, don't give up on it, but yeh, get the detect checked out if you have problems with it. hope some of this has helped you
Cheers Golden

 

[Golden]

Now Beachguy, I know for a fact that you've been out detecting!
Afterall, who helped me with advice and encouragement when I needed it, huh? You know who......

 

[w4uvvjw]

The first 5 characters are my amateur radio callsign. I've used my White's Spectrum XLT for ten years. But it did take me about 3 years to optimize its performance. I'm not totally inexperienced. I have done as you suggested comparing settings with someone who lives in my area and has some good finds and used his settings initially except for mode. I'm attuned to the difference in various VDI values. As for the physical design problem of the rod/control head stress issue, what's Minelab going to do? That's the way they made it. Normally I use 15 for sensitivity, low trash, coin or coin and jewelry, frequent noise cancellation. As I said yesterday I reduced the sensitivity to 5 at 5 reduction increments at a time over a relatively long period yesterday and still was getting hit indications showing 6 inches down. I don't think anything is wrong with the detector. Something isn't right & I assume I'm doing something wrong.

 

[Golden]

Hello again. It's a bit like the head phones that seems to faal apart on the Excalibur I have, and others have had similar problems. Also, I reckon the coil on the Excal is too long, and too bunched up when shortening the rod for water detecting. Too much cord I reckon. Just one of those things I suppose. Hopefully, they'll rectify the problems somewhere down the line. I was wondering, have you tried the All Metal Mode with no discrimination? You mentioned you've been at it a while now, so I can't see why you wouldn't be ready to use this setting. So long as you don't mind the barrage of sounds. Usually have my sense up to around 18. Mmmm, hard to say what's happening there, but you have me wondering what the problem is. they say the learning curve with the Quattro is about 12 months with constant use, that is. I used to live on old goldfields, so the ground wasn't the easiest to start with, but I was out every day, before or after work. Easy to there when it's on your back door step. Not so easy now that I live in suburbia. Anyway, hope you can work it out. By the way, I have a Whites goldmaster ll which got me going into detecting, and haven't looked back. Nice little machine, still have it, and sometimes use still in gold country.
Golden:smile PS. Have you tried a test garden with different targets buried at different depths?

 

[beachguy777]

Hey buddy! I don't want to sound too crass, but I think you were having a bad day on this one. My Quatro, has no connection problems and the fact that everything was in the 30's range good or bad, indicates that something is terribly wrong, if that's what your getting. I've never had that bad of readings with my Quatro. If it's in the iron range it's -1 or lower and if it's in the the conductive range it's between 1 and 40. If this is really true, you better send that bad boy back to Minelab. If you've mastered Andy Sabich's book Mastering the quatro, you know what I'm talking about here. Good luck. Marc Trainor.

 

[w4uvvjw]

I did air checks today and everything seemed to check out ok. I cannot find anything wrong with the Quattro. It must be me doing something wrong but air checks are not real life. Yes, I've had a coin garden for years and don't have any problems there. With the upper rod literally falling out of the Quattro 3 times in 3 hours of detecting that did not help the situation last Saturday. This is only the second time I have used it in two years due to other time commitments, house projects, etc. I do not abuse my equipment.

I called Minelab tech help today and told her about the upper support rod literally falling out of the control head interface and because of the way the Quattro is made. Eventually the stresses on the rod/control head interface cause "slop" and then total securing failure and fallout. It is impossible to externally reinforce that interface. She was very helpful and concluded the securing pressure flange was not applying sufficient force when securing the flip switch as that basically is all it could be. She is sending me a new upper support rod and replacement switch pressure adapter at no charge. I'll have to do some local repair but that's ok. So, being retired with a son in college I really appreciated that cost saving offer. She volunteered it. I didn't ask for the favor but I did mention the detector was 2 months out of warranty. That was not a problem. So thanks to Minelab for excellent customer support. I really appreciated her willingness to help me.

In time I guess I will continue to pick the uniques of the Quattro as I already have noticed a few but I don't detect on a beach or a desert. There are some unique metal detecting constraints the smart person observes detecting in eastern Va. Almost all of the eastern half of Va. is a civil war historic area. Locals as a rule are not receptive to allowing detecting/digging on their property for whatever past bad experiences or special agreements with someone, etc. Additionally the wise person detecting does not take a shovel into a local schoolyard or playground and begin digging holes. In our post 9/11 environment if a reinforced garden trowel can't be used to do the job then whatever is best left alone. Many area cities and counties have ordinances against metal detecting. Believe me I know first hand. If they don't, there's always the no trespassing law or desire that can be dredged up by the cop or whomever even though not posted. Additionally the soil in my area tends to be very acidic due to the large number of pine trees. This reeks havoc with coins especially the new clad coins. As for iron trash, it is all the place not counting the pull tabs, beer bottle caps and aluminum cans that are also all over the place.

I'll keep trying different settings but the Quattro compared to other detectors doesn't have many user settings. Right now my problem is getting a Quattro that literally stays together in one piece.